Leetsdale officials hope to turn a defunct railroad bridge into emergency access road

Leetsdale officials want to turn an abandoned railroad bridge into an emergency access point connecting the Leetsdale Industrial Park with the Ambridge Industrial Park.

It’s part of a safety effort spearheaded by council President Maria Napolitano in response to several incidents, including the train derailment in an eastern Ohio town about 2 1/2 years ago.

The new bridge would create an evacuation route for more than 200 residents from 60 households along Washington Street in Leetsdale and about 6,000 combined industrial park employees in case of a major industrial or railroad disaster.

“The main thing is safety and to put everybody’s mind at ease to know that they have a second way out,” said Councilman James DeGori, who lives along Washington Street.

“They are all concerned about not having that second way out. There have been so many situations gone over in people’s heads. If a tractor-trailer turns over on the overpass, how do we get out? If a train derails, how do we get out?” he said. “The current plan right now is to bring the Gateway Clipper from Pittsburgh down (to the boat launch) to load the people on.

“I just think that’s way too long a time for them to get here. That’s what emergency management has set up right now.”

The connecting points for the proposed emergency access would be in the parking lot of Hussey Copper in Leetsdale and at Sippel Steel Fab in Ambridge. The bridge would span Big Sewickley Creek.

“Our main concern is the safety of both communities,” council Vice President Osman Awad said. “You got 3,000 (people) here, and 3,000 there. If something happens, it works both ways — to help us out and help them out.”

The project would be done in phases, the first being a preliminary engineering study to see if it’s feasible and assess the bridge’s current condition.

There would also need to be a hazardous materials investigation to see if there are any contaminants such as lead, asbestos, creosote and propose mitigation strategies.

Napolitano said all work would be completed in accordance with PennDOT provisions and specifications.

“This is going to be a very expensive thing to do,” Napolitano said. “The overall cost of the project (could) go over $1 million. Leetsdale is a low to medium-income small community. This is not something we can afford just on our budget. Getting state and federal funds for this project will be crucial.”

Borough engineer Dan Slagle estimated all work, including design and construction, to be about $3.3 million.

“It’s more of renovating the existing bridge abutments that are there to put decking on top to support either a single lane and or a double lane bridge,” Slagle said. “It’s probably going to be about a 100-foot span. … You’re going across a rather large stream, but that would be my that’d be my guess.”

Napolitano said both Hussey Copper and Sippel Steel have been very cooperative.

“I’m grateful to them for letting us come into their premises and do this study,” Napolitano said. “They recognize the importance of this. It will be a tremendous benefit to them, too.”

The engineering study will be done by a third-party engineering firm with experience in bridge construction.

The estimated cost for the preliminary engineering work was listed at $271,000.

The borough has applied for state funding to cover the cost, a Department of Community and Economic Development Multimodal Transportation Fund grant, as well as Gaming Economic Development Tourism Fund money.

No borough match is required for either grant.

It is unclear when those funds may be awarded.

The aforementioned derailment occurred along Norfolk Southern rail lines in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 3, 2023.

One of the ways officials at the time dealt with the hazardous materials in the derailed cars was to do a controlled burn of toxic chemicals. That effort sent a large plume of black smoke into the air that could be seen for miles.

The crash resulted in tens of millions of dollars in settlements and other compensation from Norfolk to those on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border.

Leetsdale officials said they have had multiple conversations with borough residents about what could happen should a derailment along the Norfolk Southern lines in the Quaker Valley community occur.

Evacuations were a major part of those discussions.

Prior incident

Leetsdale Fire Chief Wes James recalled an incident prior to the train derailment that raised safety concerns in the area.

A five-alarm fire in the Leetsdale Industrial Park in November 2015 caused multiple evacuations. Awad was among those evacuated.

Quaker Valley School District evacuated administrators from offices in the industrial park to the high school, where after-school activities were canceled.

A building owned by Lubrizol Corp., an oilfield chemicals business, was heavily damaged by an explosion and fire that quickly spread to another building.

Eight people, including firefighters, were treated for minor injuries.

“It showed that the overpass, being the only way in and out of this area, became a bottleneck as emergency equipment responded in and residents and workers were being evacuated out,” James said via letter about the proposed bridge project.

“Questions arose about what would happen if the current bridge was damaged or inaccessible in another type of emergency situation. The emergency exit bridge would allow traffic to flow either from the Port of Ambridge Park toward Leetsdale or Leetsdale to Ambridge, helping both communities.”

The borough authorized Nichols & Slagle Engineering to evaluate preliminary alternatives for a secondary emergency exit about two years ago. The most cost-effective option was to utilize one of the two existing railroad bridges that span Big Sewickley Creek.

Industrial park access

The entrance to the Leetsdale Industrial Park was at the old Ferry Street railroad crossing, where a Subway restaurant currently sits.

Borough officials said the crossing was one of the most dangerous in the state. It was closed in 2007 following the opening of the Mike Maruca Overpass, named in memory of former Leetsdale Mayor Michele “Mike” Maruca, who long sought a remedy to the dangerous railroad crossing and died in a crash on Route 65 in Sewickley in 2005.

The overpass became the main access point for Buncher Co.’s Leetsdale Commerce Center and the Leetsdale Industrial Park.

The Leet Street bridge was another way to get into the area, straight into the residential neighborhood on Washington Street, but it was torn down a few years after the overpass was built due to no longer being structurally sound.

Project support

The proposed emergency access has received more than 15 letters of support from community leaders to emergency responders, business and nonprofit heads, to state legislators, including state Rep. Valerie Gaydos, R-Aleppo.

Gaydos also cited the East Palestine derailment as a reason to create the emergency access.

“That demonstrated (to) communities along the railroad tracks (that) we have to be vigilant on how we maintain safety for our community,” Gaydos said. “The community reached out to me after that had occurred and said, ‘What are we doing to ensure that we have emergency in and out?’ … The community spoke out and said we have to look at these safety things.

“What’s great is Maria Napolitano stepped to the plate with identifying some of these things and solving the problem. This is why we’re on it.”

Sippel Steel officials released a statement about the project on Aug. 26.

“Sippel looks forward to collaborating with the communities and local governments involved with this project,” office manager Tammy DeFallo said via email. “We feel that it will be a wonderful asset for the communities, both residential and commercial, to be able to evacuate safely and efficiently should an emergency arise.

“Safety and community engagement are always at the forefront of our culture. We believe in building stronger communities and are committed to being a positive force for social and economic change in the areas that we serve.”

Hussey Copper officials did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment as of presstime on Aug. 28.